Following incumbent president Joseph Biden’s choice to step out of the 2024 election, his vice president Kamala Harris rose to the occasion as the Democratic Party’s presidential pick. Chosen to defend democracy from insurrectionist Donald J. Trump, Harris was given a daunting opportunity. As election night 2024 came, Harris found herself winning 48.3% of the election’s popular vote in contrast to Trump’s 49.8%, leaving Trump as the new president of the United States. Harris offered an opportunity to defend the “soul of the nation,”a term coined by predecessor Biden. Despite this, Harris lost the election. A Black woman born to an immigrant mother who was overqualified for the position of presidency losing her position is a story far too familiar to most Americans with backgrounds as People of Color (POC).
Kamala Harris was never under-qualified nor unqualified: she was simply a Black woman. The terms “Black” and “woman” cannot be torn apart: the misogyny Harris faced throughout her election can be viewed as “misogynoir,” otherwise known as misogyny against Black women. When Trump was campaigning, he infamously stated that “he had not known about Harris’s mixed-race background “until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black.” This fed critics who believed Harris was utilizing her Black and mixed identity to denounce her abilities.
Furthermore, throughout Harris’ campaign, people falsely claimed she had “slept her way” to the president’s office, a striking piece of misogynoir that emulates the Jezebel stereotype “[that] portray Black women as sexually manipulative and disobedient.” Even more dangerous about this stereotype is that “history of this term stretches back to slavery, when it was frequently used to justify the rape of enslaved Africans.”
These negative behaviors without being checked lead to real-life repercussions, such as Rep. Tim Burchett’s statement on Harris: “The media propped up this president [Biden], lied to the American people for three years, and then dumped him for our DEI vice president [Harris].” If elected officials are stating this openly about women of color, imagine what is being said behind closed doors.
From birth, women are cloaked in the color pink meant to symbolize our docile nature, yet when a woman chooses to resist against this standard, they are ostracized. For Black women, simply existing in this world is viewed as resistance to this stereotype: think of Harris being called a “jezebel” for daring to run for president. Despite the fact segregation was outlawed in 1964, the stereotypes and racist beliefs that enabled “separate but equal” to exist still prevail today.
Kamala Harris had a “career of firsts”: “In 2011, Harris became the first Black American, first woman, and first Asian American elected to be the attorney general of California.” Harris continued to show her dedication to improving the United States for all as Senator, as vice president, and even as presidential nominee, and yet…
She still lost. Not because she was unqualified. Not because she “slept” her way to the top. But simply because she is a woman of color in a world that permeates hatred towards Black women.